Artistic/Entertainment Value

Moral/Spiritual Value

Age Appropriateness

MPAA Rating

Caveat Spectator

Adapted faithfully, often word for word, from
Eric Knight’s beloved novel, and ably directed by Fred M. Wilcox
(The Secret Garden, Forbidden Planet), Lassie
Come Home is a dog story from the dog’s point of view, the
story of a magnificent tricolor collie who will allow nothing to
come between her and her self-appointed duty to meet young Joe
Carraclough (14-year-old Roddy McDowall) at precisely 4:00pm as
he gets out of school in his Yorkshire village.

The obstacle to this duty, of course, is that Joe’s father Sam
(Donald Crisp) is eventually forced out of financial necessity to
sell Lassie to the wealthy Duke of Rudling (Nigel Bruce).
However, Lassie twice escapes from the the duke’s disagreeable
handler Hynes (J. Patrick O’Malley) in order to keep her
appointment with Joe, and eventually the duke takes Lassie to an
estate in Scotland, over a thousand miles from her home.

But Lassie’s sense of loyalty — not to mention direction — cannot be deterred by unimaginable distances. Abetted by the
duke’s young neice Priscilla (a precious ten-year-old Elizabeth
Taylor in her second movie role), Lassie embarks on a journey in
which she will face hostile dogs, suspicious herdsmen, the mighty
Tweed river on the Scottish-English border, and even bandits and
dogcatchers, along with more sympathetic individuals who will
help her complete her journey.

As comforting as Old Yeller is bittersweet, Lassie
Come Home benefits from its charismatic canine star and from
the source material’s sure sense of time and place, a poor
Yorkshire village in which "ye," "thee" and "thou" are still
common parlance and life on the dole is a matter of necessity.
Despite his family’s poverty, Joe’s happy ending doesn’t hinge on
a change in their fortunes. Winning the lottery couldn’t have
made him feel as lucky as his Lassie come home.